156: Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)

Discord & Rhyme continues its slow walk through the world of Post-Rock with an examination of the 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die by the Chicago-based group Tortoise. John has been fascinated by the concept of Post-Rock for many years (even if many of the acts associated with it, Tortoise included, rejected it as a useful descriptor), and a large part of this fascination stems from a love he has had for this album for over 20 years. In this episode, John, Mike, Rich, and Dan try to make sense not only of how one should define one of the most ambiguous genres out there, but also of why an instrumental album in that genre (possibly), mostly lacking clear traditional melodies and traditional song structures (the opening “Djed” is 21 minutes by itself), is clearly one of the best albums any of us have ever heard. Regardless of whether Tortoise is Post-Rock, Prog, both, or neither, this is an album worth learning about, and Discord & Rhyme is up to the challenge. Cohosts: John McFerrin, Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/156-tortoise-millions-now-living-will-never-die-1996 Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod